Spring Break
Peabody lets loose with the Avant-Garde Ensemble
Issue date: 2/21/08
Over dinner, I revealed to a friend that I would be covering an "avant-garde performance at Peabody tonight. Sounds interesting, right?"
I was received by a couple blank stares, and a short pause. Then: "Oh, Amy. You do remember that we use that term for ugly things right?"
I recalled this pessimistic conversation later, as I fidgeted in the second row, waiting for the affair to begin. The concert hall was ironically traditional, a large white room with classical architecture dominated by an organ. In front of the organ sat a raised platform with two opposing pianos and an array of unconventional looking percussive instruments. I winced internally, wondering what I had gotten myself into by going to an experimental music concert.
As a short introduction (for those unfamiliar with this phrase), avant-garde in music typically is defined by a lack of attention to a fundamental chord structure or rhythm. John Cage, after whom the Peabody Conseratory Avant-Garde Ensemble (CAGE) is named, was an American composer, best known for his piece "Four Minutes and 33 Seconds," in which no instrument is actually played in the conventional sense. It is four minutes and 33 seconds of "silence," making it a very controversial piece of contemporary music. As such, the avant-garde musical style embraces the unconventional and bizarre and pushes the limits of what can be even coined as musical expression.
The lights dimmed. First on the program was a piece entitled, "Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)," by George Crumb. The performers filled the stage. There were two pianists and two men attending percussion instruments. The music began. Eerie, echoing plucking reverberated around the room and was joined by the occasional slide whistle, cymbal (played with a violin bow pulled across its edge), and vocal exclamation. Oddly enough, I found myself enjoying this. Sure, the piece severely lacked any distinct rhythmic unification. But - it was exciting. It was irreverent. It was … beautiful. As the director of CAGE, Ann Teresa Kang, described it, the experience was, "an unexpectedly emotional medium."
I was received by a couple blank stares, and a short pause. Then: "Oh, Amy. You do remember that we use that term for ugly things right?"
I recalled this pessimistic conversation later, as I fidgeted in the second row, waiting for the affair to begin. The concert hall was ironically traditional, a large white room with classical architecture dominated by an organ. In front of the organ sat a raised platform with two opposing pianos and an array of unconventional looking percussive instruments. I winced internally, wondering what I had gotten myself into by going to an experimental music concert.
As a short introduction (for those unfamiliar with this phrase), avant-garde in music typically is defined by a lack of attention to a fundamental chord structure or rhythm. John Cage, after whom the Peabody Conseratory Avant-Garde Ensemble (CAGE) is named, was an American composer, best known for his piece "Four Minutes and 33 Seconds," in which no instrument is actually played in the conventional sense. It is four minutes and 33 seconds of "silence," making it a very controversial piece of contemporary music. As such, the avant-garde musical style embraces the unconventional and bizarre and pushes the limits of what can be even coined as musical expression.
The lights dimmed. First on the program was a piece entitled, "Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)," by George Crumb. The performers filled the stage. There were two pianists and two men attending percussion instruments. The music began. Eerie, echoing plucking reverberated around the room and was joined by the occasional slide whistle, cymbal (played with a violin bow pulled across its edge), and vocal exclamation. Oddly enough, I found myself enjoying this. Sure, the piece severely lacked any distinct rhythmic unification. But - it was exciting. It was irreverent. It was … beautiful. As the director of CAGE, Ann Teresa Kang, described it, the experience was, "an unexpectedly emotional medium."
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